Cognition: Memory, Attention, and Learning - Foundations for Designing User-Centered Systems - page 140

Fig. 5.7 This system shown
here included an instant
messenger (iChat) text and
video chat, a proprietary
video conferencing tool,
slides of the talk online and
printed, as well as paper-
based reminders and notes. In
this task, however, the
subtasks were integrated: to
watch the man in the suit talk
and ask him questions
5.3.7 Implications for System Design
Interfaces can help users do more than one task. Figure 5.7 shows a workplace
where the user is doing multiple subtasks related to listening remotely to a talk
(watching the talk, reading the talk slides, looking at the map of where the talk is,
timing the talk, reading a paper about the talk, waiting for a snack). Typically, this
is by helping them do each of the tasks more easily and by requiring less attention
to do each of the tasks. More recent work is attempting to find the times and ways
to interrupt the user at more appropriate moments.
Knowing how attention and perception work can help create better indicators of
the arrival of another task, such as a beep or flash, or a change in its priority.
Knowing about attention also helps with design because you know that attention is
not limitless, and is sometimes missing. How and when to best interrupt a task and
how to best support various sets of dual tasks remain open problems.
It is possible to increase the user's attention by including multiple modes of
input and output. For example, when users need more attention, adding voice input
and voice output as interaction modalities to supplant a visual display can provide
users with the ability to watch their performance in a flight simulator. That way,
they are receiving feedback on it at the same time (Ritter and Feurzeig 1988 ).
In applied settings, where attention is paid to multiple processes, some that are time
critical, it can be important to pay attention to a process before it becomes necessary to
control the process. The section on automation deficit explained this more fully.
5.4 Learning and Skilled Behavior
Learning is where performance changes with practice, typically getting faster,
becoming less demanding, and generating fewer errors. Learning is important for
users. They learn in several ways, including learning new information and new